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Resolution on Brazil - February 2006

Friday 3 March 2006

1) The development of the Brazilian situation has confirmed the characterization that we gave of the Lula government and its policies in the February 2005 IC resolution: ‘a coalition government with representatives of capital, dependent on the parliamentary right ... implementing neoliberal economic and financial policies and thus incapable of responding to the essential problems of poverty and social exclusion in Brazil and confrontation with imperialism’.

All of the Lula government’s measures and decisions in the last year have gone in the same direction: accepting the dictates of the financial markets, consolidating the budget surplus in order to repay the debt, not carrying out a genuine land reform - which is provoking radical criticisms from the MST - not really lowering unemployment, not raising wages, not fighting against inequality. This government is indeed a social-liberal government.

2) In this last year these government policies, contrary to the people’s interests, have been accompanied by revelations about its corrupt political methods and practices, which are in no way different from those of traditional bourgeois governments. Dozens of MPs have been bought up by prominent members of the PT leadership and government. José Dirceu, second in command in the government, had to resign. This is a real earthquake that has shaken the PT and Brazilian political life.

3) The government’s socio-economic, political and ethical development also confirm as well the political conclusions that we had drawn from our characterization of the government and its policies: revolutionaries cannot take part in a social-liberal government. Revolutionaries cannot take part in the Lula government, all of whose policies fit in a framework of respect for financial market criteria and neoliberal counter-reforms. Despite criticisms made of the corruption or the functioning of the party, most of the PT left wing, including the comrades of DS-PT, did not advocate a policy of breaking with the government during the last PT leadership elections. The accumulation of neoliberal measures during the last three years, together with the corruption, even created new conditions for a break with the government; but the comrades rejected this option.

4) During the 2006 elections, Lula’s presidential candidacy constitutes a reaffirmation of his social-liberal policies. Faced with this candidacy, the presentation by revolutionaries of a unitary, anti-capitalist alternative, an alternative to the right and the ruling classes but also for a break with the PT leadership’s social-liberalism, is a positive development. The PSOL has decided to run Heloisa Helena as its candidate for president of the republic. During its campaign it will put forward a programme for the defence of the interests and demands of the popular classes, for a break with neoliberalism and capitalism. It will denounce all the right’s attacks, the policies imposed by the financial markets and all the consequences of the neoliberal counter-reforms. It will take a stand in opposition to the record of the Lula government. In solidarity with the struggle of Latin American peoples, and in particular with Venezuela’s Bolivarian revolution, Heloisa’s candidacy will be an anti-imperialist candidacy. This candidacy can give millions of Brazilians the chance to express their desire to resist the attacks of neoliberal capitalism and change things. Rising above particular currents and organizations, this candidacy can unite a radical left, an anti-capitalist left, that can take up the original programme and fundamental original values of the PT, which the Lula leadership has since abandoned.

5) We also note that the Brazilian left is still very much divided; a large part of this left is still in the PT. Other organizations, like the PC do B, or other sectors that are clinging to ‘movementist’ positions, or the PSTU, will continue to have their own standpoints. The forces of the FI in Brazil are still, unfortunately, divided. The DS-PT continues to be active in the PT, confirming its participation in the government and reinforcing its integration in the party leadership; one DS leader occupies the post of PT general secretary. Another sector of the FI in Brazil is committed to building the PSOL and makes up the group ‘DS Collective-Fourth International’, which is joining in forming a new current inside the PSOL tentatively called Enlace. In order to foster a continuing discussion as well as maximize the chances of a convergence of all the anti-capitalist sectors, the IC reaffirms the maintenance of relationships with all components of the Fourth International in Brazil, with all these components continuing to be members of the International with full rights.